Among the things we learned about J.K. Rowling from reading the New Yorker profile of her in this week’s issue are that: she’s worth nine hundred million dollars, she worked for Amnesty International, and is “shy and thin-skinned.” Also, the reason she’s venturing into adult fiction is because “there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky.”
The first issue of Huffington, the Huffington Post’s new weekly iPad only magazine, is dedicated to literature, and features poetry and fiction by Aimee Bender, John Matthias and Terrence Holt.
In the wake of Naomi Wolf’s widely panned new opus, the New York Times wonders if vaginas (the subject of the book) will soon become appropriate dinner-party conversation. “In 2012 we’re still living in the Victorian age when it comes to sexuality,” Wolf told the Times. “Vagina has to be a household word. It should be a topic discussed at the dinner table when you’re having a dinner party.” Read Natasha Vargas-Cooper’s take on Naomi Wolf’s Vagina in our Fall issue.
The European Commission has agreed not to continue its price-fixing investigation into Apple and publishers Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Livre, and Holtzbrinck so long as the companies agree not to set agency prices or give preferential treatment to certain European countries. At Moby Lives, Kelly Burdick summarizes the effects of the decision: “consumers will benefit from lower prices in the short term, but the book trade, especially independent publishers and booksellers, will almost surely suffer as a result of the settlement.”
Salon names the audiobook version of Jess Walter’s novel Beautiful Ruins—narrated by Eduardo Ballerini—the best audiobook of the year.
“Dear David Markson...” Twelve years ago, Bookforum asked Ben Marcus to interview the author of Wittgenstein’s Mistress. Markson died before it was completed, but Marcus has posted the fragments on his website.
